“In your series, I noticed a musician added videos they listen to, so I added James Last, his orchestra. I’ve been listening to him since childhood, because my father was a big fan of his arrangements. Andre Rieu, too, I’ve listened to for five years now. This is music that makes my days sunny and joyful. I listen to these not as a musician, but as a lover of life.”
Austin Chronicle: Where are you sheltering and under what circumstances?
Oliver Rajamani: I have been sheltering at home in Austin. During Spring 2020, I spent a lot of time in my beautiful garden, painting, practicing music, meditating, and thinking this was going to end by May or June. Despite feeling bad for those severely being affected, I thought, “Wow, COVID is forcing humans to give the Earth a break. The air and waters are cleansing themselves and people are being forced to slow their pace of life.”
June hit and things got negative, psychologically speaking: Austin summer heat, 24 hours of nonstop COVID news everywhere, computer conversations, the negative energy of racial, sexual, and religious tensions in the nation and world wide, unemployment, death, suffering, and in the middle of all this, my own petty ego having trivial hangups. Living in downtown Austin and being so close to the riots and hearing the police helicopters flying 24 hours a day about the house did not help. Everything felt like it was in my face yelling loud and clear.
“I feel that over a period of time, the soul of a human being will start to crumble from within if one can not experience live music.”
Was not a good feeling.
My mind started to spin in its own wild orbit like the Milky Way, whirling thoughts and imaginings into a psychological space of my own construction. I have never in my whole life experienced my mind spin to the point of what I assume others call “depression.” Thankfully, the intensity of this feeling lasted only around a week, but I remained most of the summer months of June, July, and August indoors watching the daily rushes of this crazy movie series on a full-screen TV with VIP seating at the theatre closest to me: My Mind.
Eventually, the playing of these fullscreen movies stopped running. They stopped on their own with no effort, thank you, due possibly to some of the following things: cooler weather, daily meditations, the music of James Last and Andre Reiu, my beautiful garden, private virtual performances, and finally, venturing out of the house after seven months and see live humans beings.
AC: At what point did C-19 shut down operations for you, and what went down with the ship, so to speak, both personally & professionally?
OR: My life changed starting March. My gigs were cancelled, my tour in Germany got cancelled, the movie Romani Lone Star, which I was going to release this year, had to be postponed since we could not finish up the last part of the filming, which was to be filmed in Egypt with the Dom (Gypsy) communities. Everything felt like a weird dream.
“My mind started to spin in its own wild orbit like the Milky Way, whirling thoughts and imaginings into a psychological space of my own construction. I have never in my whole life experienced my mind spin to the point of what I assume others call ‘depression.’”
Everything seemed to be fine, yet when you opened up the computer, the negative energy of COVID and world problems oozed out from every freaking channel. I had to stop watching anything COVID or news related. Just turning on the music of James Last made me feel good, since it reminded me of happier childhood days. Driving downtown, everything was empty and deserted and quiet. You would think there was a war going on or a crazy epidemic happening, yet food arrived by instacart, mail arrived, bills arrived, and life seemed to also be normal to some weird degree.
AC: As a global culture, people employ music for every purpose imaginable, obviously spanning religion to entertainment and everything in between. What happens to communities like ours when people can no longer access it in person?
OR: Humans’ worldly experience is manifest through the five senses: touch, vision, hearing, smell, taste. The full experience of these is very important to human beings in keeping ourselves present to life. Though these five senses help us to stay present to our moment in time, they’re also responsible for the illusion of the world that seems to appear outside of us and within.
When you touch something, it seems to exist out there. In truth, it is experienced within. It is all magical as life is magical, but this magic is needed in a world for healthy human thinking and functioning.
Like many other things in life, it needs to be done from a place of awareness.
Not experiencing music in person affects our inner being. Virtual presentations are useful and lovely to keep in touch with fans, but I do not think they create the healthy connection that a human being needs. Live music is more than just being present somewhere.
It is the connecting to other human beings in a natural space through certain vibrations that transports us to a different space. It’s like riding on a spaceship in time to that beyond-time place where we create healthy, lovely memories. I feel that over a period of time, the soul of a human being will start to crumble from within if one can not experience live music.
AC: Everyone’s had to shift or drastically alter their work situation. What does that look like for you?
OR: I have always felt that technology is a good tool when used maturely. My world and work situation shifted pretty much from playing to a live audience to now becoming more present in the virtual world in order to make money. I have done many private workshops and lectures, and virtual promotions for the last seven months.
“I have no soundtrack for the apocalypse. In fact, if I have one, my soundtrack for the apocalypse would be silence. Silence of the mind. I think I would be able to get through an apocalypse better with my mind in silence.”
Most people live through technology these days. I use technology to enhance or enable certain things that cannot be done naturally, but I try not to live or experience life completely through the world of technology, though it’s becoming more and more challenging to not do so. During COVID, technology has been of real help to keep me informed and keep me in touch with family and friends and my fans.
COVID has forced me to learn more about the technological world. Now, I am able to navigate better online and to create recordings and have technological skills that I didn’t have before.
AC: What’s your soundtrack for the apocalypse and what role does music play for you as a fan and scholar of it in times of hardship?
OR: I have no soundtrack for the apocalypse. In fact, if I have one, my soundtrack for the apocalypse would be silence. Silence of the mind. I think I would be able to get through an apocalypse better with my mind in silence.
Music plays an important role in my life, but it is no more important than food, physical exercise, family, friends, doing nothing, or making a living. As a matter of fact, I take a lot of time each day to not listen to music, or play music, or think of music. I try to remain in the silence.
Silence and stillness is a natural part of our own being. Music can keep us in time and take us out of time to timelessness. Music can, in many ways, also be a distraction if it is not enjoyed from the experience of stillness and silence.
Music in Nada yoga meditation is just the elementary part of sound that we can hear. There are vibrations that exist we may not hear. Accessing these can help us be balanced in times of challenge, and also transport us to a different dimension.
It is a presence that no word can describe or define. It has always been here, it is always here, and it will always be here. In other words, “It was never born, thus it does not exist, thus it will never die,” and we are an essence of “that.”
We can see the daily drama of our life enfold in the spokes of time while we remain in timeless, spaceless awareness of stillness and silence situated at the center of the wheel of life that does not spin.
Check out the entire Checking In series.
This article appears in November 6 • 2020.
